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Key facts about the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. child population

The proportion of non-Hispanic white children in the U.S. has declined from 61 percent of all children in 2000 to 51 percent in 2016.

In contrast, the proportion of children with Hispanic origins has grown from 17 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2016.

The percentage of the child population that is non-Hispanic black has stayed relatively constant, at about 14 to 15 percent since 1980.

Trends in the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. child population

From 1980 to 1999, the proportion of non-Hispanic white children in the U.S. population fell from 74 to 63 percent. From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of children who were non-Hispanic white only (following the classification system first used in the 2000 decennial census, in which respondents were given the option of identifying multiple race categories) declined from 61 to 54 percent. This proportion continued to decrease through 2016, when it reached 51 percent, and it is projected to fall slightly further, to 50 percent, by 2020.

Since 1980, the percentage of the child population that is non-Hispanic black has stayed relatively constant, at about 15 percent, and it is expected to decline only slightly, to 14 percent, by 2020 (Appendix 1).
The proportion of children who are ethnically Hispanic has been growing steadily, from 9 percent in 1980 to 25 percent in 2016, and it is projected to reach 26 percent in 2020 (Appendix 1). However, due to changes in the categories for race/ethnicity used by the Census Bureau, estimates for 2000 and later years are not directly comparable with earlier estimates. In 2010, 68 percent of Hispanic children were of Mexican origin, and they made up 16 percent of the total child population. Nine percent of Hispanic children in the United States in 2010 were of Puerto Rican origin, 6 percent were of Central American origin (mainly Salvadoran, at 2.5 percent, and Guatemalan, at 1.6 percent), and 4 percent were of South American origin (the largest group being Colombian, at 1.2 percent). Other large Hispanic groups include children of Dominican and Cuban origin (each accounting for 2 percent of Hispanic children) (Appendix 3).

The proportion of non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander children has been growing steadily over the past few decades, from 2.0 percent of the child population in 1980 to 5.1 percent in 2016, though estimates before and after 2000 are not directly comparable (Appendix 1). Among children who are Asian alone, the largest origin groups in 2010 were Asian Indian (21 percent of Asian children), Chinese (20 percent), Filipino (15 percent), Vietnamese (12 percent), and Korean (9 percent). About 6 percent of children who were Asian alone were of mixed Asian ancestry (Appendix 3).
The percentage of the U.S. child population that is non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native has remained relatively constant from 1980 to 2016, at around 1 percent (Appendix 1).

In 2016, non-Hispanic children of more than one race constituted roughly 4.2 percent of the child population, an increase of 2 percentage points compared with the 2000 census (Appendix 1). Among all children who were identified as being of more than one race (including Hispanic children), the majority (4.4 percent of all children) were white combined with one other race, with 1.7 percent identified as white and black, 1.1 percent identified as white and Asian, and 0.6 percent as white and American Indian or Alaska Native (Appendix 2).